oh, btw, nearly 200 killed in Iraq today...

[Cayne-Abel]

4 Bombings in Baghdad Kill at Least 183
Apr 18 03:46 PM US/Eastern
By STEVEN R. HURST and LAUREN FRAYER
Associated Press Writers



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BAGHDAD (AP) - Suspected Sunni insurgents penetrated the Baghdad security net Wednesday, hitting Shiite targets with four bomb attacks that killed 183 people—the bloodiest day since the U.S. troop surge began nine weeks ago.

Late Wednesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the arrest of the Iraqi army colonel who was in charge of security in the area around the Sadriyah market where at least 127 people died and 148 were wounded in the deadliest bombing of the day.

It was the second massive blast at the market since Feb. 3.

Nationwide, the number of people killed or found dead on Wednesday was 233, which equaled the highest daily death toll since The Associated Press began keeping records in May 2005.

Interior Minister spokesman Brig. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf declined to comment when asked about the staggering number of deaths Wednesday, directing an Associated Press reporter to Brig. Gen.Qassim al- Moussawi, the military spokesman. His phone was turned off.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called the bombings "horrifying" and accused al-Qaida of being behind them.

Among the dead in the Sadriyah market bombing were several construction workers who had been rebuilding the mostly Shiite marketplace after the February bombing that killed 137 people, a police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

The laborers typically finish work around 4 p.m. each day. One of those wounded, 28-year-old Salih Mustafa, said he was waiting for a minibus to head home when the blast went off at 4:05 p.m.

"I rushed with others to give a hand and help the victims," he said. "I saw three bodies in a wooden cart, and civilian cars were helping to transfer the victims. It was really a horrible scene."

The market is situated on a side street lined with shops and vendors selling produce, meat and other staples. It is also about 500 yards from a Sunni shrine.

About an hour earlier, a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital's biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

The explosion killed at least 41 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 76, police and hospital officials said.

Black smoke billowed from a jumble of at least eight incinerated vehicles that were in a jam of cars stopped at the checkpoint. Bystanders scrambled over twisted metal to drag victims from the smoldering wreckage as Iraqi guards staggered around stunned.

Earlier, a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.

The fourth explosion was from a bomb left on a minibus in the central Rusafi area, area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.

U.S. officials had cited a slight decrease in sectarian killings in Baghdad since the U.S.-Iraqi crackdown was launched Feb. 14. But the past week has seen several spectacular attacks on the capital, including a suicide bombing inside parliament and a powerful blast that collapsed a landmark bridge across the Tigris River.

In Israel, Gates said the military had anticipated that al-Qaida terrorists and other insurgents "would attempt to increase the violence in order to make the plan a failure or to make the people of Iraq believe the plan is a failure."

"Obviously the level of fatalities today is a horrifying thing. But I think it illustrates another point: These terrorists are killing innocent men, women and children who are Iraqis. They're killing their countrymen," he said at a news conference in Tel Aviv with his Israeli counterpart, Amir Peretz.

Meanwhile, to the west of the city, U.S. troops killed five suspected insurgents and captured 30 others in a raid in Anbar province, a day after police uncovered 17 decomposing corpses beneath two school yards in the provincial capital.

The raid took place early Wednesday near Karmah, a town northeast of Fallujah in Anbar, which has been a stronghold for Sunni insurgents.

American forces raided a group of buildings suspected of being used by militants and found explosives inside one of them, the military said in a statement. A helicopter was called in and dropped precision- guided bombs on the buildings, it said.

The soldiers came under fire and shot back, killing five Iraqis and wounding four others, the statement said. The wounded were taken to a military hospital and remained in U.S. custody. Twenty-six other people were detained as well, the military said.

The bodies found a day earlier at school yards in Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, were discovered after students and teachers returned to the schools a week ago and noticed an increasingly putrid odor and stray dogs digging in the area, police Maj. Laith al-Dulaimi said.

Ramadi had been a stronghold of Sunni insurgents and al-Qaida fighters until recently, when U.S. forces in the region and the Iraqi government successfully negotiated with many local tribal leaders to split them off from the more militant insurgent groups.

The U.S. military also reported that a suspected insurgent was killed and eight captured in two raids north of Baghdad on Wednesday. Some of the suspects were believed linked to al-Qaida in Iraq and to a militant cell that has used chlorine in car bombings, the statement said.

Separately, U.S. officials announced that last week they found 3,000 gallons of nitric acid hidden in a warehouse in downtown Baghdad. U.S. forces discovered the acid, a key fertilizer component that can also be used in explosives, during a routine search Thursday, the military said.

Iraqi troops also took charge of security Wednesday in the southern province of Maysan, a region that borders Iran and the fourth province to come under full Iraqi security control since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

A ceremony was held in Maysan's provincial capital of Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, and was attended by senior Iraqi and coalition officials including Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie and the British commander in southern Iraq, Maj. Gen. Jonathan Shaw.

Al-Rubaie said that in order for a timetable to be set for the withdrawal of foreign troops, Iraqi forces and local authorities have to be ready to take over. He was apparently referring to calls by some Sunni Arab groups and al-Sadr's Shiite followers to set a timetable for a pullout.

"We should work to create these circumstances in all provinces, in order to revert security to Iraqis and end the foreign presence," said al-Rubaie, who represented al-Maliki, the commander in chief of Iraq's armed forces.

Al-Maliki was supposed to attend the ceremony but his trip was canceled without explanation.

Does anyone else feel a little uncomfortable about the fact that people are being blown to jelly in Iraq by the hundreds, and it getting literally less than 1/100th of the attention the VA shooting is?

[mr.bigglesworth]

Yea, until I realized American lives are worth more than middle eastern lives.

[InternetHero]

Originally Posted by mr.bigglesworth

Yea, until I realized American lives are worth more than middle eastern lives.

In Iraq I am sure Iraqi lives are bigger news. People care more about their own nationals and the U.S. is the most powerful media force.

It is a natural thing and I am entirely accepting of it.

[HeadBanger]

Seriously, how much new are we really going to learn about VA Tech. An update once an hour will do, now get back to the friggin news.

[mr.bigglesworth]

Originally Posted by InternetHero

In Iraq I am sure Iraqi lives are bigger news. People care more about their own nationals and the U.S. is the most powerful media force.

It is a natural thing and I am entirely accepting of it.

They would probably laugh at the VTech shooting. "Two small pistols? 32 dead? Some guy just blew half of the market away with one fuckin bomb and you're talking about 32 dead? Its gonna take a week just to count how many have died and thats just for todays blast, were still counting bodies from 3 weeks ago."

[Darwinist]

The insurgents are also getting better at penetrating the Green Zone. They took out two govt. officials there last week IIRC....

Soon there will be no safe place outside a US military base. And even there I am not so sure.

[Title Fight Productions]

Originally Posted by Darwinist

The insurgents are also getting better at penetrating the Green Zone. They took out two govt. officials there last week IIRC....

Soon there will be no safe place outside a US military base. And even there I am not so sure.

You really think this is turining into more than "them" blowing up "them"?

[Plum]

Does it bother anyone that the VT psycho's actions are being broken down so sympathetically... so he's a victim here too? How come the media never gives Palestinian suicide bombers the same kind of treatment? How come they don't medicalize the living shit out of the suicide bomber, and tell everybody that he was just a sad, twisted, tortured soul?

"... and like elephants, some people are just jerks... Stop that Mr. Simpson."

[Darwinist]

Originally Posted by titlefight

You really think this is turining into more than "them" blowing up "them"?

Depends on how the US forces behave.

Apparently the surge has called for establishing smaller "outposts" apart from the main base camps around Baghdad in order to be able to lock down neighbourhoods and quell the violence. Some of those outposts might be cut off and assaulted if the insurgents got their acts together. A concentrated assault would be costly in insurgent lives, but the payoff might be worth it.

A truck bomb properly delivered to such a locale by force might do a lot of damage to US lives.

But apparently that isn´t the plan. I think they are going to continue to just pick off US troops slowly here and there. But when you tally the bodycount up at the end of every month, the trend will be upwards.

It´s essentially unavoidable if you want to patrol more agressively and be more active in the field that you are going to lose more troops.

[Title Fight Productions]

Originally Posted by Darwinist

Depends on how the US forces behave.

Apparently the surge has called for establishing smaller "outposts" apart from the main base camps around Baghdad in order to be able to lock down neighbourhoods and quell the violence. Some of those outposts might be cut off and assaulted if the insurgents got their acts together. A concentrated assault would be costly in insurgent lives, but the payoff might be worth it.

A truck bomb properly delivered to such a locale by force might do a lot of damage to US lives.

But apparently that isn´t the plan. I think they are going to continue to just pick off US troops slowly here and there. But when you tally the bodycount up at the end of every month, the trend will be upwards.

It´s essentially unavoidable if you want to patrol more agressively and be more active in the field that you are going to lose more troops.

Yeah, i agreed with a post you wrote awhile back saying the US better be ready to stomach some more "war like" loses if they excpect to make any ground in this "conflict/policing".